


Hidden Magic

by fragileKnight1



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Magic AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-23 18:48:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30059937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragileKnight1/pseuds/fragileKnight1
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price
Comments: 20
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

Max was confused why her parents were in a hurry to move away after her thirteenth birthday and she was angry when they made her act like Arcadia Bay didn’t exist. They didn’t seem to care that she was hurting. That she missed her best friend Chloe, and she was getting eaten alive by guilt at abandoning her days after her dad died. 

Then the antlers sprouted, small and curved like a crown of thorns, and her parents grew even more panicked. They cut them off and ground them down but every morning they would come back. Her parents grew secretive and for years they wouldn’t let her outside, but not because they were afraid of people seeing her. 

They seemed afraid of something else and three years later the letters started to arrive;ancient looking things written on parchment and sealed with a blue butterfly. Everyday a new one would be in the mailbox even before the mail was delivered and her parents would shred them. 

Eventually Max woke to find her parents distant and her bags packed. She was ready for them to cut her antlers off once more but they told her that it was no longer necessary. They told her it was time for her to go back to Arcadia Bay. That it was time to go to the Blackwell Academy and find out about who she truly was. 

\-----

Max took a seat in the very back of the bus and kept her hood pulled tight against her head so that none of the people around her would see her antlers and most of the trip brooding over the truths that her parents had chosen to keep from her. She was their daughter, but she was not human. She was given to them by the forest and they had hoped to break the bonds of magic binding her to her spiritual parent by fleeing Arcadia Bay. 

It was all too much for her to handle but it turned out that it was barely a drop in the ocean. She noticed that the other people on the bus were starting to melt into the shadows as the bus started to speed up until the trees out the window were nothing more than a blur. 

The interior started to shift into something that lacked all logic it was claustrophobic one moment and a vast canyon the next and she tried to jump up to pull the emergency break but leather hands burst out of the seat and pulled her back down as a soft, feminine voice said, “Oh, hon, it is too late for that and you will definitely want to be sitting for this next part.”

“Wha....”

Max didn’t get to finish talking before the bus suddenly started to plummet straight down like a terrible carnival ride and as the pressure threatened to shatter her ribs she found herself floating slightly before realizing they were somehow driving straight ahead again. It hurt her brain trying to think about it and it only got worse when she saw Arcadia Bay, because this was not her Arcadia Bay.

It all was set up the same but the Junkyard was a massive mountain, the lighthouse was some kind of abomination with countless tentacles draped over the cliff with a single massive eye project light out onto the vast purple waters of the bay. 

“Welcome to Arcadia Bay!,” The voice came back, “Now from your age I can surmise you will be attending Blackwell, and that is definitely a wonderful school. If you are not from this Earth and are from the far more boring one and are feeling a combination of terrified, confused, or nauseous do not panic. Those are very common symptoms of dimensional transpositioning.”

Max stood and didn’t care that her hood had slid free due to whatever the bus had called the fall. She was absolutely awestruck by what she was seeing. It was like every dream she had ever had was yanked out of her head and made real. And then she felt angry that her parents’ tried to keep her from this. 

She moved up toward the front of the bus and realized that there was no driver or even a place for one, but compared to the sights zooming past outside as the bus sped around corners at speeds that should have been impossible it didn’t really bother her until the bus sprouted feet and started to run up the massive trunk that led up to the Blackwell Academy campus.It burst out of the branches and landed in the parking lot as it said, “Well here we are. I hope you enjoyed the ride.”

Max stepped off the bus and staggered in half dazed across the campus before stopping to look at the statue out front of the school. The guy had four arms and was holding a different object in each one that most definitely held some sort of special significance if only she knew what they were.

"Maxine Caulfield?"

Max turned to a very large...satyr? He fit the looks of the one from Hercules except only he was far taller than Danny Devito and he was black. He was also wearing a cheap polyester suit and had a heavy odor of rancid booze drifting off him. She tried her best not to grimace at the smell of the booze and said, "Yes, sir, I am Max Caulfield."

"I am Principal Welles and I have to say I am glad to see that your parents finally gave in and sent you to us. It is never healthy for parents to deny their children the gifts granted to them."

"Uh..." Max fidgeted, "They didn't really tell me that much beyond the fact that I am not human."

"Well come with me and we will set up a proper class schedule for you and give you the key to your room at the dormitory."

Max nodded and tried not to seem like too much of a weirdo by staring at the other students but it was hard. On the surface it looked like a normal high school. Except one of the jocks near the trophy case had four arms, and the other one had grey skin and massive tusks. She followed Welles into his office and nearly jumped out of her skin when a chair knocked her off her feet so that she would sit in it.

Welles pulled a large blue orb from his desk as he turned on his computer and said, "Hold the orb and it will help me choose classes that serve your interests."

Max took the orb and watched as the blue faded into swirls of other colors and explosions of yellows and greens, "So what do these colors mean?"

"To you or me nothing." Welles looked at his computer, "But my computer is telling me to place you in Creative Writing, History, Photography, and Basic Magics."

"I do love Photography, but how does that exist here?" Max smiled, "I would think..."

"We are not completely cut off from the other Earth here and we have come to love certain aspects of it." Welles smiled, "Although we don't like to deal with digital here, because it doesn't work as well as your basic film."

Max pulled her Kodak camera out of her bag and said, "What about this?"

"Oh that is an excellent choice." Welles nodded, "I have a feeling that you are going to truly come to love living at this school."

"Will I ever be able to be able to go home?"

"Once you learn how to do a basic illusion spell to hide your appearance from the regs."

"Regs?"

"Regulars as in people like your parents." Welles printed out a few forms and handed them over to Max, "Classes are over for today so I am going to let you do a little exploring around campus so that you might have a chance to make some friends before tomorrow."

"Thank you."

"Oh and before I forget," Welles pulled out a piece of carved quartz wrapped in copper, 'Here is your key. Your dorm will be on the second floor, room twenty-one."

Max left the office and with the weight of her backpack and her rolling suitcase starting to tire her out decided the best place to go was the dorms. After a nap and snacks she would feel up to exploring the campus, but she wasn't sure about making friends. Everyone around her knew who they were while all she knew was that she was a freak. That realization sucked all of the joy and excitement out of her and she stopped trying to look around as she walked.

Halfway to the dorms three girls stepped into her path. The leader of the group was not any creature Max recognized. She was unbelievably beautiful with predatory eyes that shimmered with gold flecks among a sea of green, and hair the color of golden wheat. She could have been human if not for the fact that she had crimson scales going up her arms and a long reptilian tail that had been decorated with gold bands.

Max tried to get a better look at the others as they surrounded her but was also trying not to freak out. The one to her right had brightly colored feathers instead of hair and feathers going up both her arms and the other just looked human except for the eerie black pools she had instead of eyes.

"You must be Max Caulfield, the little runaway that they finally found." The leader smiled thinly, "Since you are new here I am just going to lay down some ground rules that are discussed in the school handbook. You do not try to..."

"So you three are the school mean girls?" Max shrugged and sighed, "I get what you are doing and I will stay out of your way. I know that I don't belong here, but I can't go home. I just want to get to my dorm room and disappear until I have to go to class tomorrow."

"Wow way to suck the fun out of this, Max." The leader crossed her arms, "I am Victoria, and my friends are Taylor and Courtney. We were just planning on hazing you a little before offering to help you move in."

"Sorry..." Max sighed, "It's just I am having a hard time understanding all of this. My parents spent two years homeschooling me and I guess trying to protect me, but..."

"Listen a lot of us were a little fucked up at first because of our parents." Victoria put her hand on Max's shoulder and said, "But yeah you seem a little more fucked up than the rest of us. Did your parents tell you anything at all?"

Max shook her head, "Only that I wasn't human and that my spiritual mother was the forest. They then helped me onto the bus and left me to figure everything out on my own including the fact that the bus would come to life and bring me to this version of Arcadia."

"Well I guess we can help you figure things out." Victoria smiled, "If you haven't figured it out I am a dragon, Taylor is a Harpy, and Courtney is a Banshee."

"You are a dragon?" Max smiled, "That is really cool."

"And you are a faun." Victoria led Max into the dorms, "Forest spirits are actually quite rare nowadays. The trees are less likely to bless humans than they once were for obvious reasons."

"I am a faun?" Max bit her lip, "I wish I could research this stuff."

"I have an old laptop you can have." Victoria stopped at the elevator, "And some books given to me by a student when I first came here."

"You have a computer?"

"And the internet." Victoria waited for Taylor and Courtney to get on the elevator before motioning for Max to get on as well, "What floor is your room on?"

"Two." Max looked at the hundreds of numbers on the elevator key pad and said, "How many floors are in this place?"

"No idea." Victoria hit the two, "Most students are too afraid to try anything more than the basic buttons. I will say that if you want to get to the cafeteria fast without walking across campus hit the Pi symbol."

"The Delta symbol goes to the old Library." Taylor piped in, "It was really scary though and I got out of there. I think it is infested with virachnae."

"Virachnae?" Max looked at Taylor, "What are those?"

"Spider-Viper hybrids." Taylor shivered, "They have the bodies of a spider but the heads of vipers."

"So avoid the old Library." Max nodded as the elevator doors opened, "Well thanks for being kind of friendly."

"What? Do you think this is all we were going to do?" Victoria stepped off the elevator, "Nah, we haven't even got started. It is time to really welcome you to Blackwell.


	2. Chapter 2

Max stared up at her ceiling as a loud explosion shook her from her dream and for a brief moment thought she was back in her own room but then a second explosion knocked her out of bed and she saw two centimeter tall purple people climbing out of a sizeable hole in the wall behind her bed.

"Hi." Max waved slowly, "I am Max Caulfield. I will be getting out of your way shortly."

A tiny woman with a corkscrew leg and an action figure's arm walked over and saluted before saying something Max couldn't understand due to the height differences between them.

"Well I can't hear you so I'll leave this here for today."

Max stood up and dug through the box of shower supplies Victoria gave her for a normal sounding bottle of shampoo and headed down toward the communal showers. It seemed like whatever the explosions were had woken up almost all of the girls on the floor and Max had to wait for a shower to open up. It made her feel weird just standing around and looking at herself in the mirror but then a very sad looking girl walked in.

"Good morning."

The girl froze and just stared at Max before saying softly, "Good Morning, Max."

"You know my name already?" Max smiled, "I guess word spreads pretty quickly around here."

"It does...My name is Kate."

"Well it is nice to meet you." Max smiled, "Quick question what are the little purple people that harvest spider webs called?"

"Pixies, and they are pests." Kate kept staring at Max, "You should ask Samuel to get rid of them before they multiply."

"Nah, I like them." Max fidgeted, "So why are you staring at me? Is it my antlers? I know they look weird and I want to cut them off but my parents told me I didn't have to do that anymore."

"Your antlers are lovely and I am staring because I don't feel anything." Kate shook her head and gently took Max's hand, "I am an empath. I read emotions and most of the time I can feel the truth behind people's words but from you everything is just blank."

"Is that good or bad?"

"I...I don't know." Kate shook her head, "It has never happened before. Even now with a fresh cup of tea in me I can feel the echoes of the other students on this floor."

"That sounds awful." Max looked down at Kate's hand which had a strange symbol painted on it, "Do you use these symbols to control your powers?"

Kate pulled away her hand and nodded, "They help me not read lingering memories on objects. For the emotions I drink a special tea although lately it hasn't been helping as much."

"I would ask if there was anything I could do but I just got here and I am still a little lost."

"It seems that you have made friends though." Kate smiled, "Victoria has definitely started her plan to add you to her dragon hoard."

"She has invited me to a party this Friday at the beach, but I don't think I will be going." Max stepped out of the way of a girl with snakes for hair and tried not to watch as she started to scrub them down with a toothbrush, "I am not sure if I'd be much fun to have around. I'll probably just stay in my room and read randomized Wikipedia articles on the laptop Victoria gave me."

"Well that sounds like fun." Kate washed her face, "Since you were here first I will let you use that open shower first."

"Thanks."

Max rushed her shower and quickly went back to her room to get ready for her first class but as she started across the campus to the school Taylor rushed up to her in a colorful blur and said, "Good to see you out of your room. So what is your first class?"

"History."

"For me that would be boring, but for you it will be a really fun class." Taylor laughed, "So Victoria wanted me to apologize for how she...uh...well you know."

"I don't know..." Max scratched her head, "Did she do something?"

"Oh right you wouldn't know." Taylor laughed, "Well you know when she wrapped her tail around you and you rubbed it? Well...that was very intimate."

Max felt heat surge across her body and she knew from Taylor's smile that she was blushing, "Tell it was my fault and that I am sorry."

"You know it is rare for Victoria to take such a shine to others so quickly." Taylor made Max walk with her by wrapping her arm around Max's waist, "And she is far too proud to ever admit this but I think she has a crush on you."

"We just met."

"I said crush, not love." Taylor smiled, "Ms. Arnwalt, the poetry teacher would be better suited to explain the rush of knowing a possible great love at first sight and I think it would be good for the both of you if you were to join us at the beach."

"You heard me in the bathroom."

"Courtney heard you and she relayed that information to me." Taylor opened the door to the school for Max, "I understand that you are not feeling like you belong here, but I need you to trust me when I say you do belong here."

"It just might be too soon for me." Max sighed, "I still would like to hang out, but I am not ready to party."

"Well you have time to change your mind if you want to." Taylor stopped outside of the History classroom, "And if you don't that is fine as well. There will always be more parties."

"Thank you."

Max chose a spot at the very back of the room and hoped that the teacher would ignore her but Mr. Dresden immediately made her come to the front of the room to introduce herself before he would give her the textbook.

When she sat down a girl with translucent skin and multicolored tendrils for hair had slid closer to her desk. The girl slid her a note that read, "What is the other world like?"

Max looked at the note and wrote, "Honestly not the best person to ask. I stayed inside most of the time.", before sliding it back over.

The girl quickly wrote back, "I was born down here and learned a lot from books but was curious about what it was really like."

Max bit her lip and wrote back, "Sorry I am not more help."

The girl stopped writing when Mr. Dresden walked to the back of the room and picked up the note, "Brooke, you know better than to pass notes in class now please try to focus on the lesson. What year did the Great Calamity begin?"

Brooke looked at Max with a smile and said, "Nineteen Thirty-Six when Transylvania invaded Prussia."

"Excellent." Mr. Dresden nodded, "And how did the Sovereign States of North America react?"

"They invaded the Kingdom of Brazil."

Max tried to keep up in her text book and fidgeted when Mr. Dresden turned his three eyes on her but he simply smiled and said, "Don't worry I am not going to ask you any questions this first week. I am going to let you get settled in first."

Max nodded and let out a sigh of relief when Mr. Dresden returned to the front of the class. She kept reading her text book while trying to take notes and knew that she was going to be doing more studying than sleeping for a while.

With her next class being creative writing there was very little to surprise Max except that her teacher was a vampire who seemed to have known Emily Dickinson on a personal level, and then there was photography with Mr. Jefferson. He honestly creeped her out with how he talked about sealing away moments in time and about how photography stripped away the facade of innocence in the world.

Her final class though was Magic with Ms. Grant, a very knowledgeable woman with bat-like wings that she kept draped around her body like an expensive cape. Since Max had missed a few lessons Ms. Grant gave her a flash drive full of study aids and made her partners with the same slime girl from the History class.

Unfortunately for Max though it took her hearing the girl's name a second time for her to commit it to memory. It seemed to sour the possibility of friendship between them in Max's eyes but once the last bell rang Brooke was quick to prove her wrong.

"So, Max, I am thinking we could do a study sess." Brooke leaned on the lockers, "I am honestly not the best at magic but I can put you ahead of the class in history."

"My brain is still processing the fact that magic is real and that for some reason Ms. Grant has pictures of both Benjamin Franklin and Tesla on her wall."

"She also teaches science, alchemy,and anatomy."

"Oh..." Max laughed at her own ignorance, "I was afraid that Benjamin Franklin was a wizard or something."

"Tesla was." Brooke smiled, "Not in the traditional sense mind you but he had the same flair for creativity."

"My brain hurts." Max shook her head, "Do you mind if I zone out to music?"

"You have music from the other world?"

Max nodded and pulled an old beat up Walkman out of her bag, "I made lots of mix-tapes and brought them with me."

"You can drift as long as you promise to let me listen to them once we get back to your room."

"I can hook this up to a speaker and we can both listen in my room."

"Now this is going to be an awesome study sess."

Max shook her head and slipped her headphones on and turned up the volume until she couldn't hear anything around her. She was no longer at a magic highschool. She was in a concert hall listening to Tears for Fears playing Everybody Wants to Rule the World. She was able to escape until they reached her room and Victoria decided to show her ugly side.

Max felt Victoria's tail wrap around her and she gasped when she was jerked away from Brooke, "Whoa..."

"I thought we were friends?" Victoria hugged Max a little tight, "I thought we had something special."

"She can have more than one friend!" Brooke crossed her arms and glared at Victoria, "She is a person, and not a gold coin to add to your hoard."

"Well still I doubt Max would want to hang out with a gelatinous freak like you." Victoria hissed, "You probably slipped her some of your slime and brainwashed her."

Brooke turned a bright red and her fingers hardened into knives as she yelled, "You bitch!"

"Oh do you want to go?!"

"Stop!" Max finally regained her breath when Victoria unwrapped her tail, "Neither of you are my friends. I have just met both of you."

"What?" Victoria let Max go and said, "We aren't friends?"

"Not yet." Max huffed, "I am really glad you two like being around me, but at the moment we are just acquaintances. If you want to be my friend you won't do this, because this isn't what friends do."

Victoria crossed her arms and whipped her tail, "Fine, but I am still..."

"Victoria, I am going to help Max study." Brooke cut Victoria as she returned to normal and said, "Do you want to help me and at the same time prove that we are both her friends."

"Normally I would refuse to be seen with someone like you..." Victoria took a deep breath, "But for Max I will do anything. That is just how good a friend I am."

Max took a deep breath when Victoria and Brooke went into her room and she saw Kate staring at her through a gap in her door, "Sorry about disturbing you."

"It is alright." Kate smiled, "I have never seen Victoria admit defeat before."

"Not sure if that is what actually happened." Max laughed, "Do you want to..."

"Join? No." Kate shook her head, "There are too many emotions coming off of those two and it would be too much for me to handle at close range."

"Oh..." Max nodded, "Well if you ever want to hang out when I am alone feel free to come over."

"I might do that."

Max waved goodbye to Kate as Kate closed her door and she stepped into her bedroom expecting Victoria and Brooke to be at each other's throats again but thankfully they were just sitting at opposite ends of the room glaring at each other. She chose to ignore them and sat her Walkman on her desk. She hooked it up to a speaker she had spliced a basic auxiliary cord to and smiled as Bad Moon rising started to play.

"So who wants to help me study history?"

"I am just here to make sure Brooke doesn't do anything to you." Victoria narrowed her gaze, "But if you need help I am taking Advanced Magics and I will be able to help you with your Basic Magic studies."

"Thank you." Max looked at Brooke, "Thank you both. We will start with History and then work on Magic."

"I guess I need a little help in Magic as well." Brooke crossed her arms, "This could be a mutually beneficial situation."

Victoria crossed her arms, "I guess so. Not that I am struggling in any of my classes."


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning Max was awakened by a wet slapping sound against her window and grimaced when she saw that it was somehow raining leeches. She walked back over to the bed to pick up her walkman and found a stack of coins with a shield on one side and a horned woman on the other along with a note written in nearly microscopic script. She knelt down to check under her bed and found that the pixies had set up tents and were now setting up wooden boxes full of dirt. They were also corralling spiders now as well which creeped her out but she decided to ignore that for now.

She was about to head to class when Brooke came in without knocking and said, "Classes are canceled today due to the weather."

"You mean the leeches." Max looked out the window, "Yeah that is weird."

"No this is normal." Brooke laughed, "When it actually rains that is when you need to panic."

"Why?"

"Uh..." Brooke fidgeted, "Anyways since classes are canceled some friends of mine are setting up a game of Brigands and Blackhearts."

"What is that?"

"An immersive game where you create characters to explore a world where pirates rule the seas and skies. Where Europe was conquered by Africa. Where..."

"I get it." Max shook her head, "And it sounds fun. How do you play?"

"Well that is up to you and the rules set in place by the Game Master, who in this case is Steph." Brooke smiled, "You don't know who Steph is, but she is the best at weaving complex stories."

Max picked up her bag and followed Brooke down the hall to the elevator and said, "So where are we going?"

"To the Epsilon Room."

Brooke hit a weird looking symbol on the Elevator and it started to shake violently before dropping. They floated for a moment before the elevator slowed down and when the doors opened Max collapsed. Her legs felt like they were made of rubber and she barely could stand let alone walk without Brooke's help.

"What kind of elevator is that?"

"Do you understand quantum magics?" Brooke smiled and helped Max sit down at a wierd looking glass table, "Because it functions on a whole lot of theoretical principles that make very little sense."

"I think I proved last night that I don't understand even basic magic."

"True." Brooke laughed and sat down at the table, "There are rumors that since multiple elevators can exist at once there is a student lost to where the elevators go because they decided to hit all of the buttons at once."

"That sounds awful."

"You might want to read the student handbook." Brooke laughed, "Maimings, disappearances, death, and fates worse than death are actually covered in it."

"Seriously?", Max shook her head and looked to the elevator as a Sphinx walked off and said, "Is that Steph?"

"Oh someone say my name?" Steph moved a chair away from the head of the table and pulled a caddy full of miniatures from her bag, "You must be the new girl. Have you ever played this game before?"

"No."

"Then let's get you a character set up." Steph pulled out a thick book, "Do you want to play as a character I created or create your own?"

"I want to create my own."

"Oh I was hoping you would say that." Steph held out her paw to reveal a white cube, "Cup that in both of your hands and imagine yourself as a traveler across the high seas."

Max nodded and cupped the piece in her hands as she tried to imagine what Steph said. She could actually hear the creaking of the ship, smell the salt in the air, and for a brief moment see the ice as it slid into the sea. She opened her hand and she saw herself only in miniature wearing a thick looking coat. She was looking through a telescope and the bag on her back was overflowing with scrolls.

"Oh she is cute, but now we need to learn her backstory."

Steph laid out a sheet of paper and placed the mini Max on it causing ink to bleed out from the base of the figure. Max watched the ink swirl into words and pictures and when it was done picked up the Max figure so that Steph could take the paper.

Max looked over the figure to try figure where the ink came from and said, "So what does it say?

"Born to a noble house in the Icelandic Merchant Republic, Max chose to abandon the life of wealth and ease to travel the world beyond the horizon. You have served with almost every navy and are welcomed as a Sister to the wise Romani people traveling across Europe. You know the stars and the seas better than even the most seasoned captain, but never feel at home in any of the places you visit. You live a life of great loneliness and secrecy."

"That sounds really depressing."

"Well maybe at the end of this game this Max will find herself a place to call home." Brooke cut in and sat out her character, a mini Brooke wearing an armored Admiral's uniform holding a weapon that looked a little like a Gatling Gun, "I am a former member of the Royal Science Society of Oxford. She grew bored of the life of a researcher and took to the skies as a member of the Castillian Aerial Navy until a tragedy saw her exiled to Jamaica. In her rage she became a pirate queen and that was until the last game when she lost her crew to Clockwork invaders from the future."

"That sounds really cool."

"Oh I have something even more special planned for this game as soon as the other players arrive." Steph smiled, "This game might just change how you see the world Max."

"I get the feeling that you two aren't telling me something about this game."

"Well yes," Brooke laughed softly, "But that is half the fun."

Max fidgeted and decided to keep going even though she was starting to feel uncomfortable about the situation. One by one the others showed up. She recognized Warren and Stella from the Photography class, but Mikey was an unfamiliar face. He was younger than all of them, but was also in all of the advanced classes with Steph which said that he had been at Blackwell as long as her.

Steph whistled loudly to get everyone's attention and said, "Everyone put your hands on the table and close your eyes. It is time for us to enter the dream I weaved."

Max did as she was told and felt a strange tingling sensation go up her arms and down her spine. After a few moments a soft voice told her to open her eyes and she found herself in a tavern sitting in the bay window. She had been listening to the storm raging outside and then she saw Brooke, or what had been the miniature Brooke come down from upstairs. "Brooke?"

"Aye, Max." Brooke walked over, "So do you have any questions?"

"I should but I don't." Max smiled, "I feel different. So this is a shared dream?"

"A dream written and produced by Steph." Brooke nodded, "I love this game. How about you?"

"No strong feelings." Max looked at the door as a massive man walked with a lanky scholar, "Warren and Mikey?"

"Looking cool, Max." Warren smiled, "Has anyone seen Stella?"

"Oh I have been here the whole time." Stella appeared out of thin air at the counter, "I still have the Cloak of Camouflage from our last campaign."

Brooke laughed and said, "I thought that was written out of the game."

"Nope." Stella laughed, "I killed the Duke of Devlinshire and I got to keep all of his loot. I got this Cloak, a Hornet Horn, and a Ring of Retribution."

"So what is this campaign?" Mikey crossed his arms, "What did..."

The door the tavern blew open and a bloody man staggered in. He had a rusted blade sticking out of his back and he made it to the middle of the room before collapsing. Brooke ran to him and said, "He is dead."

Max looked at the window as something scraped against the window and said, "This is bad."

"What do you..."

Warren froze mid-sentence when a harpoon flew through the window and hit him in the chest, and Stella screamed when he was yanked back outside. Brooke grabbed Mikey to save him from another harpoon that came flying in and scurried behind one of the beams holding up the ceiling.

Stella dove behind the counter but Max didn't move. She was stuck in place as a blue haired pirate stepped through the shattered window. It was impossible but the face hit a chord with some deep part of her and she said, "Chloe?"

"Chloe?" Brooke yelled, "That is Callamastia, the deadliest pirate in the world. She leads an undead army and has wiped whole towns from the face of the earth."

"That face belongs to Chloe." Max shook her head, "Why does Steph know that face?!"

"Ask her after we survive this onslaught." Brooke shouted, "My gun is still upstairs, but I will need a distraction to get to it."

Max ignored Brooke and walked over to Callamastia without any weapons. She looked at her with a faint smile and said, "I know you."

Callamastia laughed and said, "You must be the most foolish..."

Max reached out and took hold of Callamastia's hand, "Do you not know me?"

"MAX!" Brooke looked at the door to the tavern as zombified pirates came barging in dragging corpses behind them, "That is not your Chloe!"

"Max?" Callamastia paused, "You left me. You left me after my father died. My entire world shattered and I had nothing to hold onto except for my memories."

"I am so sorry." Max started to cry as reality mixed with the story, "He was like a father to me as well but I had no choice. If I stayed...My family would have never let us be together. I have traveled the entire world but no place felt as safe as your arms."

"I...I..." Callamastia screamed and a ghostly form rose from her back. A horrid twisted thing that was interwoven with Callamastia's own soul with rusted chains, "I can't fight her. She found me when I was at my lowest and I let her in. She..."

Max hugged Callamastia tightly and said, "Then let her take me instead."

Stella rushed over and slipped a ring onto Max's finger as the ghost that tried to possess her and in a blinding flash the ring exploded. The ghost was expelled from both of them and with a deafening screech disappeared into the storm.

The army of zombies rotted away and Brooke kicked away a skull that rolled too close as she said, "What was that?"

Max watched Callamastia fade as they returned to the game room and she looked at Steph, "I second what Brooke said. What was that?"

"You hijacked my story." Steph scratched her head and picked up the Callamastia figure, "This belonged to a girl that was expelled and somehow you two share a common backstory. You took my awesome war against the undead story and made it into a tragic romance that we will have to continue the next time we play."

"Was this girl's name Chloe Price?"

"Yes." Steph nodded, "She was really awesome and took no shits from anyone."

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know." Steph shook her head, "How do you know her?"

"We were best friends." Max looked stood, "Who would know where she ended up after getting expelled?"

"Rachel Amber, but she disappeared a few months ago." Steph bit her lip, "I am sorry, Max. If I knew that you were connected to Chloe I would never have used her character."

"No..." Max smiled, "I am glad that you did."


	4. Chapter 4

Max rushed back to her room with Brooke close behind and with the intention of looking up Chloe on the school website to see if it said why she was expelled, but when she got to her room she found Victoria sitting on her couch eating the cookies that her mom had packed for her.

"Did you break into my room?"

"You didn't lock your door." Victoria sat the cookie tin aside, "Why are you with Brooke?"

"She wanted me to play Brigands and Blackhearts with her." Max took a cookie from the tin and sat down at her desk, "Do you know a girl named Chloe Price?"

"I knew her." Victoria frowned, "She was an absolute bitch."

"You didn't like her I guess?"

"Oh no, I loved that she was a bitch." Victoria shook her head, "I hated that she hung out with that phony Rachel Amber. She was just a trained mutt to Rachel and didn't seem to notice how Rachel was trying to get the male teachers to have sex with her."

"Me and Chloe weren't that far off in age." Max scratched her head, "She would be sixteen now so I take it that Rachel was also sixteen...Am I right?"

"She didn't care." Victoria ate another cookie, "She wanted to be famous. She believed that because she was a Muse that she was destined for greatness and looked at what happened. She gets burned out and runs off."

"Max, look Chloe up." Brooke shook her head, "Victoria is obviously too opinionated to tell the truth."

Max nodded and opened the school directory on her laptop and searched Chloe's name which resulted in a yearbook photo that almost made Max cry, and a couple articles written for the Blackwell Tattler. The first article was about a play that Chloe was involved with along with Rachel Amber and Victoria, but the second was completely different. The picture of Chloe was full of rage, and she was being restrained by two security Golems.

"A violent altercation between students Chloe Price and Nathan Prescott left Nathan in serious condition. The details of why this fight occurred are still unclear but witnesses claim that Chloe was accusing Nathan of doing something to Rachel Amber, a student that went missing two weeks prior."

Brooke reached over Max's shoulder and scrolled down to a picture of Nathan that made him look like some kind of saint compared to the one of Chloe and said, "Doesn't say where Chloe ended up though."

"I don't remember a fight." Victoria walked over and looked at the picture of the scene of the fight and at the witness quotes one of which had her name on it, "I don't remember any of this."

"Neither do I." Brooke paused, "And there I am in the background watching the school security drag Chloe away."

"So you remember Chloe, but someone has removed all records of her expulsion from the school."

"I remember Nathan though." Victoria moved back to the couch, "We hung out together and his parents chose to remove him from the school so that he could be instead be trained by private tutors at their mansion. He was one of my best friends. He was so much fun to be around."

"So Rachel vanishes, Chloe blames Nathan, Chloe fights Nathan and gets expelled, Nathan is removed from school by his parents, and now Chloe has vanished." Max crossed her arms, "And neither of you remember the fight?"

"Steph didn't remember either." Brooke walked over to the couch and pulled the last cookie out of the tin, "Something happened during that fight and no one wants us to know what, but maybe the person who wrote the article will know."

"Juliet Watson."

"The crazy girl?" Victoria stood and rubbed the back of her head, "She hasn't left her room in months."

"You mean the same amount of time that Chloe has been expelled?"

Victoria looked down and then looked up, "What the fuck is going on around here?"

"Let's find out." Brooke nodded, "Her room is next to mine."

Max and Victoria followed Brooke down the hall and they let Brooke be the one to knock on Juliet's door. When no one answered Max stepped up and said, "We need you to tell us what really happened back when Chloe was expelled."

"The door opened just a crack and Juliet said, "They changed what I wrote, and they changed everyone's memories, but I was immune."

"Who are they?"

"The Peace Keepers." Juliet opened the door completely revealing a gaunt, pale skinned girl with heterochromic eyes, "They came under the guise of gathering evidence but when they left no one remembered the fight and my article was changed. Chloe was handing out missing persons posters with Rachel's picture on them. Nathan told her to stop and she told him off so he used a lightning spell against her and she transformed using her powers. Chloe won but got all of the blame."

Max walked into the room and shook her head when she saw that the walls were covered in copies of the Blackwell Tattler and the Arcadian Gazette, "Why didn't your memories change?"

"I am immune to magic so I faked forgetting and hid." Juliet sighed, "Then I started to dig, to compare my memories with the town's, and these articles do not match what I know, and it all ties back to the Prescotts. I think they are using illegal magic to manipulate the town and the school."

"And no one else knows?"

"They call me crazy."

Max looked back at Victoria who was fidgeting nervously and noticed an article for William's death, "Wait this one happened in the other Earth. Why do you have it?"

"William Price was a Peace Keeper." Juliet walked over, "He had the ability to travel between worlds to look for fugitives, and he chose to live on the other Earth."

"Do you know where Chloe is?"

"Yes." Juliet nodded, "She is somewhere near Mount Rust. Even before she was expelled she would hang out there with Rachel."

Victoria shook her head, "Why would anyone hang out at that deathtrap?"

"Is Mount Rust that pile of junk I saw coming into town?"

"Yes." Juliet nodded, "There are tears in reality across the other world and those tears sometimes drop ships, planes, and other things onto Mount Rust. I would advise against going there. Victoria is right about it being dangerous."

"Well we have already stepped into danger." Brooke cut in, "And I want to know what is going on around this town now."

"Be careful." Juliet sat down on her bed, "Don't let anyone know that you know or else they will make you forget."

"We will be careful." Max followed Victoria and Brooke out of the room, "Listen you two don't have to get involved."

"Max you probably don't even know how to leave the school." Victoria crossed her arms, "And besides I don't like the idea of you heading to Mount Rust alone."

"Max..." Kate walked up very timidly and tried not to look at Brooke and Victoria, "I feel what you are planning from Brooke and Victoria. Their emotions right now are speaking so loudly it hurts, but I want to come with you. I knew Chloe...She was full of rage and sadness and could never quiet her emotions, but she was the first person I didn't mind being around despite the noise."

"You can come Kate." Max smiled, "If you are certain that you can handle it."

"With you..." Kate took hold of Max's hand, "...by my side I think I should be just fine."


End file.
